A Troublesome Echo

In 1863, the people of Morpeth enthusiastically found good uses for their newly finished courthouse. Not only were legal cases heard there, but they also held concerts, public meetings, vaccinations, a fundraising bazaar, voting, and a death inquest – all before the furniture had even been installed. But it was quickly recognised that there was […]

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Keeping Time

When the Morpeth Courthouse was built in 1862 it didn’t quite meet expectations. Notably, its striking edifice was without a clock. Since only the wealthiest residents could afford their own clocks, there was a pressing need for a communal clock, complete with an hourly chime, loud enough to be heard throughout the town and beyond. […]

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A Measure of Good Health

Mothers regularly pushed their prams up the ramp of the local courthouse in 1950s Morpeth. But it was not a judge and jury that they were to there to see—it was a baby health nurse. In this unlikely place from 1954, about ten years after the the building had been closed as a court house, […]

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